The Timber Era & Incorporation

Price County was created in 1879 from portions of Chippewa and Lincoln counties, carved out during the height of the northern Wisconsin logging boom. It was named after William T. Price (1824–1886), a lumber baron and U.S. Congressman whose timber holdings directly benefited from opening the region to logging — an on-the-nose naming choice for a county that would be defined by timber for its first century.

The “Green Gold” era drew loggers, railroad tycoons, and settlers to the Northwoods. The vast white pine forests — trees 4 to 6 feet in diameter at the base — were more valuable than minerals. Logging camps housing 50 to 200 men dotted the Flambeau River watershed, operating primarily in winter when frozen ground made skidding logs easier. Spring thaw meant river drives, when thousands of logs were floated downstream to mills in Phillips and Park Falls.

The county population tells the story: 9,106 in 1900, surging to 11,132 by 1910 at the peak of the harvest. By 1920, growth had nearly stopped — the accessible old-growth pine was gone. For a first-hand account of life during this era, Wm. J. Bendixen’s 1930 review documents Prentice’s transformation from a rugged wilderness outpost into a thriving dairy and manufacturing hub, complete with firsthand details about the pioneers who built the community.

Industrial Grit & Resilience

As the white pine was harvested, tanneries and sawmills became the lifeblood of Price County’s communities. Prentice, named after Scottish-born timber cruiser Alexander Prentice who worked for the Wisconsin Central Railroad, grew into a major logging hub. The United States Leather Company tannery was one of the largest employers in northern Price County — processing hemlock bark into leather for the booming national market.

Then fire changed everything. In February 1906, flames broke out in the tannery’s dry loft, causing $75,000 in damage. The company rebuilt. Five months later, in July, a second fire swept through the facility, destroying the majority of the tannery and causing an estimated $400,000 in damage. The tannery was never rebuilt. The full story of the 1906 tannery fires — documented in the Prentice Calumet newspaper — illustrates a pattern that repeats throughout Price County’s history: a single industry dominates, a catastrophic event disrupts it, and the community adapts.

Prentice’s response to that disruption is still visible today. The Prentice Village History Walk guides visitors through 17 surviving landmarks — from the football field lights dedicated in 1962 to the VFW memorial and the old railroad junction — each marking a chapter in the village’s recovery from the boom-and-bust years. What was once a wilderness logging camp became a dairy powerhouse, shipping 4.5 million pounds of cheese in 1930, and eventually the crossroads community it is today.

The Cut-Over Crisis & Rebirth

By the 1920s, Price County’s forests were largely clear-cut. What had been endless white pine stands became a landscape of stumps, bare hills, and tax-delinquent land. Farmers tried to make a go of it on the sandy, nutrient-poor soils left behind — most failed. Fires swept through the dried slash left by loggers, threatening the few communities that remained.

The federal government stepped in. In 1933, President Herbert Hoover established the Chequamegon National Forest, purchasing thousands of acres of cut-over and tax-forfeited land across Price, Bayfield, Ashland, and Sawyer counties. Civilian Conservation Corps crews planted millions of red pine, jack pine, and spruce seedlings on the barren land throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Today, the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest encompasses over 1.5 million acres — much of it second-growth forest that barely resembles the original wilderness, but supports a thriving recreation and timber economy that Price County depends on.

The transition from exploitation to conservation is one of the most important chapters in Price County’s story. The same forests that were liquidated for profit in the 1880s now draw tourists, hunters, and outdoor enthusiasts who power the local economy. The land came back — different, but resilient, like the communities it surrounds.

Culture & Local Lore

Beyond the mills and rails, the social fabric of Price County was woven in its saloons, community halls, and art parks.